One Direction May Have Plagiarized Def Leppard’s ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’

For the second time this year, British boy band One Direction are being accused of ripping off a classic rock tune. The chorus to their new hit, ‘Midnight Memories’ sounds suspiciously like Def Leppard’s ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me.’

According to the U.K. Mirror, Def Leppard have asked their lawyers to determine whether or not 'Midnight Memories' contains elements from their global smash from 1987’s ‘Hysteria’ album. The band did not comment, but a source close to them reportedly told the tabloid, “Music lawyers will routinely scour hits like this one to see if there is any evidence that a band has either copied or cleverly mimicked a Def Leppard song…Everyone is staying silent at this stage but it’s clear the two songs sound alike – which has been enough for Def Leppard’s aides to pose questions to their legal team.”

This past summer, it was suggested that the pop stars nicked a piece of the Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’ for their hit ‘Best Song Ever.’ Calling them “part of pop’s lineage,” composer Pete Townshend gave his approval to the youngsters, saying, “The chords I used and the chords they used are the same three chords we’ve all been using in basic pop music since Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry made it clear that fancy chords don’t mean great music — not always.”

You be the judge. We’ve embedded videos of both songs below, starting at the choruses. Did One Direction rip off Def Leppard, or is it, as with the Who, a simple case where the chords just happen to be common enough?